Haven't forgotten, although I have limited shelf space so I think this will be the first Halo novel I get in a while I just read entirely via digital means.

I'm not sure what to think about it. I would have said that I thought Contact Harvest and (basically all I remember from Cole Protocol) gave us pretty much all I was looking for from the early Covenant history. I dunno if this book, plus those glimpses of ancient Prophets in H2A, suggest a new avenue 343 is exploring.

I also have no knowledge of Shirley's work. We'll see what kind of writer he is.

Overall, it's solid. The only thing I've read of Shirley's is the Rapture tie-in novel, and I see a lot of similarities--it's sort of a "history from the little guy" bit of storytelling, especially the end, where you're essentially seeing slices of Halo 2 and 3 from a different perspective. That said, it's not really a novel so much as a collection of story threads--short vignettes strung together, where literally half the characters in the book become irrelevant for the second half (only one character bridges the periods) There's not even a real protagonist. Some of the locations start sounding a lot like Space Rapture by the end (everything's going to hell!). The writing sometimes got on my nerves (frankly, it often feels a bit clunky, because Shirley seems to have these "this is a plot point and so I will have my characters dump some lore on you" problems judging by the two books.) It probably would have been stronger as two separate novels with connections between them compared to what we got.

That said... when this novel was announced I wasn't sure what there was left to add to the founding of the Covenant beyond what Contact Harvest gave us, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Those who were interested in the Prophets will find a to like here, and the book continues the recent trend under 343's direction of diversifying the Sangheili's culture into something realized and (as annoying as it is to use in these contexts) human. I wish it was stronger as a standalone novel, but as a Halo book lore guys will find a lot to enjoy, and it's a breezy read (only took me around sixish hours on an iPhone, YMMV.)

Yeah, cool stuff about the San'Shyuum in here. I only wish they had gone into the destruction of Janjur Qom from the Reformists perspectives. All that got was a brief mention in the first half that the star was dying, but that feels like a whole plot point in and of itself to me.

Agreed with Dave though, good attention to the universe. Lots of small stuff that fiction fans will love. Even just seeing the Helioskrill mentioned again was a nice nod to Cole Protocol. And yeah, it feels like this novel is more of a setup for future events than a standalone story, but for Halo fans it's a good read.

Some cool stuff about the Stoic's technological progression into gene-manipulation, rather than starlight and whatnot. I absolutely want to see more of their society, see what those gene technologies did to their society, what it looks like.

So... at the end they are siding with the arbiter, but keeping on the down low ie haven't informed the Arbiter what's going on?

The Forerunner left a Halo manual on Janjur Qom for when/if they became sufficiently advanced? Did they leave them on other seeded worlds as well? Sanghelios? Earth? etc?

This last shield world seems to have been designed as some kind of elaborate double/triple/quadruple bluff last ditch defence against the flood. Designed to a) be a shield world b) be able to 'self-destruct' c) disguise itself in the asteroid belt d) form a halo ring as a last resort??? e) profit?